National Socialist German Workers Party |
The National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), better known as the
NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political
party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. The term Nazi is a short form of the German word
(NA)tionalso(ZI)alismus (National
Socialism); the ideology of the NSDAP (generally considered to be a variant of Fascism under a misleading name).
The party was the main political force in Nazi Germany from the fall of
the Weimar Republic in 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945, when it was declared
illegal and its leaders were arrested and convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials.
Party history
In the beginning of 1918, a party called the "Freier Ausschuss fur einen deutschen
Arbeiterfreiden"(Free Committee for a German Workers' Peace) was created in Bremen
Germany. (6) Anton Drexler, locksmith and self-styled poet, formed a
branch of this league on March 7, 1918, in Munich. In 1919, Dexler with Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart and Karl
Harrer, changed the name to the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party, abbreviated
DAP). This party then is the formal forerunner of the NSDAP and became one of many völkisch movements that existed in Germany as a result of its defeat in
World War I. In order to investigate this party, German army intelligence
sent Hitler as a young corporal to monitor party activities. Impressed by what he saw, he joined as member 555, although Hitler
later claimed to be "Party Member number 7" to make it look like he was a founder. He in fact was the 7th member of the DAP's
central committee. Hitler wanted to name the party "Social Revolutionary
Party" (4) but Rudolf Jung prevailed upon him to follow the pattern of
Austria's Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei. The DAP was shortly renamed the NSDAP. When the NSDAP was refounded
after being banned following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in
1923, Hitler took Party membership number 1.
Gottfried Feder served as their economic theoritician and Rudolf Jung supplied the young party with a ready-made ideology that
he carried with him from Czechoslovakia. It was a 25-point program. Hitler added his confused ideas about foreign policy and Julius Streicher added his more virulent anti-semitism views.
After the failure of its coup attempt in Bavaria, the Nazis competed poorly in elections for the remainder of the 1920s. In
the election of 1930, however, the Nazis, propelled by Germany's economic problems in the
incipient Great Depression increased their vote dramatically,
becoming the second largest party in the Reichstag. It improved its position in the years thereafter, despite a brief ban in 1932 of the S.A. (the party's private
army) and in the elections of 1932 the party reached a total of 13.75 million votes and became the largest voting bloc in the
Reichstag. Hitler was appointed Chancellor by president
Hindenburg in January 1933, and in an election marred by S.A. strong arming, the Nazis and
their Nationalist allies gained a majority, which they used to pass an Enabling Act to put absolute power into Hitler's hands.
After the banning or cancellation of all other parties (July 5, 1933) and the ban on new parties (July 14, 1933), the National Socialists became the only remaining political party. This was part of the Gleichschaltung. The NSDAP Anthem was called Horst Wessel Lied.
The makeup of the Nazi party consisted mainly of the lower middle classes both rural and urban. 7 percent belonged to the
upper class, 7 percent were peasants, 35 percent workers and 51 percent were what can be described as middle class. The largest
single occupational group was elementary school teachers. For any Nazi members that had military ambitions, they entered the
Waffen-SS for they were forbidden in the Wehrmacht. In order to join the Wehrmacht, national socialist
members had to surrender their party card. (1)
Nazi Party symbols
- Nazi Flags main color was red because they were only adapted communist and socialist flags. Hitler did this
partly to annoy them. "The red field meant anti-capitalism, the white meant nationalism; and the black hooked cross, the
swastika, meant the superiority of the 'Aryan race'." (2)
- Swastika
- The Roman Eagle
Other early members
Hermann Esser editor of the Völkischer Beobachter, Nazi party
organ.
Sayings, mottos and slogans
- "Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!" "Hail to Victory". Common Nazi chant at rallies.
- "Germany, Awake!" (Coined by Dietrich Eckart, this was the title
to one of their songs and put on all their banners.) (5)
- "The Jews are Our Misfortune!"
- "Down with the Catholics!"
- "Long Live Our Glorious FUHRER!"
- "Today Germany, Tomorrow the World!"
- "Your Fatherland Is Called Germany! Love It Above All! Action Not Words!".
- "Germany's Enemies are Your Enemies. Hate Them With Your Whole Heart!".
- "He who Abuses Germany, Abuses You and Your Dead. Strike Your Fist Against Him!".
- "The German Always Before the Foreigner and Jew!"
- "Certainly the Jew is Also a Man, But the Flea is Also an Animal".
- "Believe in the Future! Only then Can You Be a Victor!" (3)
Election statistics
Related topics
References
- Reappraisals of Fascism, ed. by Henry A. Turner, New Viewpoints, NY, l975. pg 99 and Leftism Revisited,
Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Regenery Gateway,
Washington, D.C., l990, pg 163.
- Hitler and Nazism, Louis Leo Snyder, pg 21.
Leftism Revisited, Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, pg 162.
- Hitler and Nazism, Louis L. Snyder, Franklin Watts, Inc., NY, l961. pp 23, 69, 80-81. (The author was in Germany and
witnessed the mass meetings.)
- Liberty or Equality, von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, pg 259. Ref. Konrad Heiden, "Les débuts du national-socialisme",
Revue d'Allemagne, VII, No. 71 (Sept. 15, l933), p 821. Also confirmed by Dr. Hans Fabricius, Geschichte der
Nationalsozialistischen Bewegung (2nd ed.; Berlin; Spaeth, 1937), p 15.
- Where Ghosts Walked, Munich's Road to the Third Reich, David C. Large, W.W.Norton&Co., NY, 1997. pg 165.
- Konrad Heiden
Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus; die Karriere einer Idee, pg 19 as quoted in Liberty or Equality, pg 258;
Nazism and the Third Reich, Henry A. Turner, Quadrangle Books, NY, l972, pg 8.
External links
|